Go Moo (Ca-Carrot)

The area along Dundas St. W around Bay and University was Toronto's first Chinatown. The city tore it down to make way for City Hall and also because of a legacy of Yellow Peril fear. In 2020, after the beach-head by Kenzo Ramen about 10 years ago, most of the restaurants here are Asian. So even if there was no Chinatown rebirth, a pan-Asian/Japanese vibe now permeates this milieu.

Tuesday night, after looking over my choices, I settled on Gyu Gyu Ya which offers donburi and Japanese curry. I will say that this spot isn't great for vegetarians. All their curries use a beef broth base (which explains the bull mascot in their logo), even the vegetable Yasai Curry ($10.49) that I ordered. Furthermore, the vegetables were close cousins to those that come out of frozen mixed veggie bags. Having said that, the Kanazawa curry itself was quite good and different from both Thai and Indian. It was thicker and had a slightly sweet undertone and mixed well with the rice. The thinly sliced raw daikon added some crunch.

If you ate meat, then the extra $2 or so for the meat dishes would get you some pork, chicken or beef cutlet with your curry. This seems like a better deal, especially for a quick dinner. That might explain why all the other diners looked like students, probably from Ryerson or the U of T residence on Chestnut St.